Chronocidal

For all the floppy-looking underside, the molding itself looks very clean, and the fit in the legs looks quite good. I dunno, I mean, compared to current offerings from the other main players in Macross merchandise, sure, it's not great. On the flipside of that, I'd definitely say it's better looking than either the old Yamato 1/72 YF-19 or the first Bandai VF-25, just purely on aesthetics. It's not a bad start for a first attempt at a product. I still think the fuselage contours are off, and the hump is too big, but I think with some work, the leg mechanism could be covered up nicely. They just need a folding flap that would cover the swing bars and streamline the shoulders. Might not be room for it in battroid though.

Considering the acrobatics the legs have to go through on this design, I don't think any amount of swing bar redesign will give you something that looks good, or works correctly. Now, maybe if they reversed the mounting point, and moved the swing hinges to the backplate instead of under the chest? I don't know. I'm not actually convinced that there's no thigh swivel though, some of the gerwalk pictures show at least a little twist behind the knees. It might be just a lack of practice in posing.

I'm realizing why the underside looks so weird. The swingbars for the legs are taking up the space that should be streamlining the shoulder boxes. I admit, I can't really think of a better way to do that off the top of my head, but it kinda needs something to cover that mechanism in fighter mode.

I'm not sure if it's just me being personally not very familiar with the design, but the wings look tiny, and the lower legs look like they stick way out the back. Still the weirdest looking elbow hinges I've seen yet. I mean, if it drops into the bargain bin, maybe I'll grab it, but it's like they really made no attempt to disguise the leg swingbars as anything, or to streamline those solid block hinges sticking out of the top. I was never really that interested in this one to begin with, so I can't say I'm incredibly disappointed, but it just doesn't look like they'll be able to compete in the current market with that level of quality at this price level.

Given how they're designing stuff with all kinds of moving parts, I'd assume it's only a matter of time before we get full-fledged valks built for the game. I stil think my personal interests are going to be hugely focused on modding, but the official game universe is looking better all the time. I also love how he's been repeatedly digging at the Wing Commander fans, re-using ship names from the olden days.

As long as you keep it in fighter mode forever, you've got a good chance of never running into any problems, short of the shoulder triangles cracking. But if you plan on never moving the arms, you can glue the pieces in place, and not worry about it, or even replace them with printed Shapeways parts.

Well, I mean, it looks like a spoiler. Is that what passes for a spaceship now? Guess they just went ultra-utilitarian for it, but at least the Millenium Falcon didn't look mostly like an early 80s cellphone. There are a lot of hinged panels all over it, so I expect it opens up into a playset, but the minifigs included might be semi-spoiler-ish.

All I'm going to say is.... What.

Bleh, I am rapidly running out of room in my apartment for this stuff, but I feel like I should get one more of these to repaint. Maybe if I rearrange the closet and collapse some of the boxes, then repack the valks in styrofoam...

So I did a quick buildup of the Bandai 1/48th X-Wing, took a couple hours with very little parts clean-up. Very nice kit overall, with a few exasperating features. They definitely have the edge over Fine Molds in terms of detail though, the molding and fit are crisp all around (with a notable exception I'll get to). Shape of the ship is a bit different in scale and proportion, with a bit wider fuselage, and slightly smaller cannons. Cockpit is much more detailed as well, with a much better shape, and I love the option to leave the glass out of the canopy frame. The frame itself also looks more robust than the Fine Molds, though that may be due to being molded separately from the canopy glass. One annoying bit.. the fuselage construction is just way too complicated. They molded a ton of sections separately, dividing them (mostly) by panel lines, and put them in different colors to replicate the movie model. The colors are quite a bit too stark in contrast though, and will need a significant amount of weathering and fading before they look right (honestly, the colors are dark enough, they might work as pre-shading). Bandai also didn't really do a great job dividing up the panels, so you might be left with an ugly zig-zagging seam running down the right side under the cockpit. The panels are just divided awkwardly, and they don't fit well in that particular spot. I do hope to see a version made that leaves out all the electronics, because as fancy as they are, they're a pain during construction. The design of the wing mechanism is probably the most annoying, since the way the kit is constructed, you have to build the wings directly onto the wing mounts in layers. If you could just build them and plug them in, it would be much simpler, both for construction, and painting. The motor is also geared so that the wings do not move at all unless under power, so in order to open or close the wings, you have to mount the ship on the stand. A word of caution about the wings as well, they're not identical. There are small guide nubs in most cases to make sure you mount the right parts on the right wing, but that doesn't mean they won't let you press two parts half-way together before you realize that you have the wrong parts (I sheared off one mounting pin when I tried to press together two wing layers that didn't go together, and they didn't want to come apart). Safest way to go is to follow the part numbers, and only build one wing at a time. Bandai did its best to replicate the specific details for Luke's ship, and that includes all the little greeblies that made each wing different from the others. All in all a fun build, it's clear Bandai put a lot of work into making this kit match a specific movie miniature, while Fine Molds' kit seems to be more generic in many respects, based on any number of references from the different studio models. I do think I prefer the construction of the Fine Molds one, since the mess of little panels that slot together to make the Bandai's fuselage are probably one of its main issues (though not a huge deal by any means). Now the real fun begins.. disassembling the whole thing, and building and painting it up properly.

I do remember a mix-and-match guide Bandai put out long ago, I think for the v.1s, and it gave names to a bunch of possible combos of tornado, super, and armor pack parts.

Anyone get to try the Battlefront demo yet? Talked to a few friends who watched the advance reviews, and they were extremely disappointed, to say the least, mostly because they seem to have ignored the entire structure of the original games, and simplified the concept to the level of a cheap console arcade-ish shooter. I've read a few comments and reviews, and people seem to all agree that it's beautiful, and that the gameplay isn't terrible for what it is, but it sounds like it's truly nothing like the original game in any way.

Still not understanding why they refuse to paint certain parts the right color, but maybe I'll pick up one of these for the armor, and sell one of my old Yamatos cheaply (think I got it broken for about $100 and fixed it up, will happily let it go for that).

I can definitely vouch for that as a fun thing to do, I grew up building models with my dad from a very early age (4 I think). Just make sure to pick out a few cheap kits to let them learn on. Snap-tite kits were a fairly new thing when I started, so I started out just fitting parts and rubber banding things together, but it's much easier now with all the kid-themed kits.

Was that 5 foot model never actually used? I thought it was used in some of the closeups from ROTJ. I've actually always liked the details on that one, even if they don't quite match the originals. Considering how many on-the-fly patch jobs those ships would have received, I've always wondered what a "stock" X-Wing would look like, similar to how the Y-wing was shown in Clone Wars with all of the exterior panels attached. One thing I always did find funny though was that ROTJ used a significant number of the original MPC kits for the wide angle shots, and I'm pretty sure they were re-used for the footage put together for Star Tours. I took a close look at one of the X-Wings during the ride once, and I was able to pick out the pin-holes in the lower wings for locking the wings together. Wobbly wings aside, those kits were really quite good, especially for the late 70s.

I thought it was the cherry on top of the cupcake?

Engrish at its best/worst. It's always been New Edwards. The Macross Plus bluray release includes a booklet specifically about Edwards AFB, and how New Edwards is based on it. I'm pretty sure Hasegawa got it right on their markings, but not every company has that kind of experience with US aircraft and markings.

If I remember correctly, the original release did come with skull markings for the tails, or at least the black backgrounds.

Would someone ask if they could possibly adjust the cockpit so the pilot doesn't slide back and forth? The instrument panel is way too far forward. If they're making new molds, now would be the time to fix that. Otherwise, carve out the pilot's mold and give him enough of a butt to stay put.

So, I managed to get one of the 1/48th Bandai X-Wings through amazon, and I have to say, I'm a little surprised that they left a few obvious features out.. Unlike the 1/72 kit, despite the nose cone and tail cap plug being separate pieces, they didn't include the alternate options for the separate ships and R2 units. Between that, and the specifically colored panels, they pretty much intend for you to make only Luke's ship. The molding looks very nice, as expected, but what's funny is that I think some of the details looked better on the 1/72 one. The nozzle details don't look as finely molded as the ones on the fronts of the gun mounts (which is amusing since they're supposed to be identical). The color molded parts are the most irritating feature by far though, I wish Bandai would stop trying to shoehorn its gunplay techniques into other kits. Not only do they try to force you into a single paint scheme, but they throw a ton of random seams all over the kit, and then force you to primer the whole thing before painting it if you don't want colors bleeding through. Eh. I can appreciate some of the finer details though, I think this is the only kit to fully mold the torpedo launcher alleys, and the glass-less cockpit cover is a nice touch (though in the wrong color, of course). The kit overall looks awesome, and should make a nice display, but I think the Fine Molds version is just a more sensible kit in most ways. The electronics are nice, but I would have liked to have been able to pick and choose which set of markings I use. There are so many alternate schemes from the EU that could have been done, but it'll take a lot of extra work to make them happen. Edit: oh, and one small pet peeve.. I know the landing pads aren't anything anyone expects to be realistic.. but they could at least make them small enough so they're not obviously thicker than the area they go inside of. The landing pads are just comically oversized. I've made a flight sim X-wing model with entirely functional landing gear, so I know it's possible to fit the pads in where they're supposed to go.

I'd actually like to see a comparison of old and new release prices, adjusted for the yen/dollar exchange rate. The new VF-1s were a bit more I know, but the original price point was 9800 yen, and they added the stand. The new prices really don't seem that far off to me from what I remember paying. And anyway, really, an FB2012 scheme is one of the simplest repaints to achieve, and thanks to the way the VF-4 transforms, most of the changes in paint aren't even at risk for scratching. I might pick up another to customize anyway. Then, if they eventually issue the real scheme? I'll still get that one, and just repaint the tails again as another squadron. There's no shortage of F-14 markings that would look awesome on one of these. Off the top of my head, Sundowners, Ghostriders, Black Aces (complete with black nose cone), all sound nice. Pretty much the only parts needing work for any of them are the nose, and tails, and possibly the ventral fins.

I don't think people are going to shell out over $1000 for a direct re-release.

I might even grab one if it's the same gray markings, and just customize it. I'm always afraid to do anything like that because of the potential to muck up the customization.

It really wasn't "exclusive" though. It was marketed online, and went through a few pre-order windows when they realized what the demand was like for it. It amounted more to a made-to-order type of product that was manufactured specifically to meet the demand. Personally I wish Yamato had used that method all along for some of the more expensive items, since I think it would have saved them a lot of trouble in the long run. If this does turn out to be a VF-4 in 2012 markings, I will be extremely happy though, and will probably grab one at whatever price they set it at. My lack of interest in getting the VF-0A helps that a bit though, I admit.

As novel an idea as the Yamato one was way back when, there's really no contest at this point. The Bandai one just looks, feels, and transforms a lot more solidly.